Rick Potion No. 9
Rick Potion #9 is the sixth episode of Season 1 of Rick and Morty. It is the sixth overall episode. Plot Morty is very interested in Jessica, but lacks the opportunity to ever talk to her. With the annual Flu Season Dance coming up, Morty turns to Rick for a potion that can make Jessica like him. After a brief argument, Rick gives Morty a serum that has the genetic makeup of voles, a rodent that pair bonds with its mate for life. Morty asks if there's anything that can go wrong with the serum and Rick answers no. Morty leaves the garage lab. Then Rick quickly adds, "unless she has the flu." At the dance, Morty uses the serum on Jessica, and it seems to be a success. Things are going well until Jessica begins to sneeze. The serum, which has piggy-backed onto the flu virus, is seen to go airborne, entering the fruit punch and air vent. Soon everyone at the dance is affected by the serum (and flu). The students and faculty swarm around Morty before Rick saves him. Rick later tells Morty that the serum doesn't affect anyone related to Morty by blood. Rick then quickly works to create an antidote. He decides to use praying mantis DNA. Rick releases his antidote along with a second airborne virus. It appears to have been successful until the town starts growing mantis-like appendages. Now not only do they still wish to copulate with Morty but also have the urge to behead him afterward. This Mantis-love virus soon infects the entire population, all of which wants to mate with Morty. Meanwhile, Jerry struggles with feelings of jealousy when Beth is called in to work late. Despite Summer's warnings, Jerry decides to stop by St. Equis Hospital where Beth works. After a successful surgery, Beth's coworker Davin makes a move before being infected by the Mantis-love virus. Jerry busts in with a crowbar and beats him to death. Meanwhile, Rick and Morty travel to a secluded area and Rick begins to concoct a third virus to try and undo all of his previous work. Taking the DNA from several sources, including cactus, golden retriever, shark, and dinosaur, he creates a third airborne virus that results in turning the entire population into disfigured, humanoid blobs that Rick dubs "Cronenbergs." The world is soon overrun with these disfigured monsters, and Jerry and Beth fight their way through them to survive, eventually reuniting with Summer. On a rooftop overlooking the chaos around them, Rick and Morty call each other out for their part in the end of the world; Rick blaming Morty for asking for the serum to begin with, and Morty blaming Rick for mixing random genes together and hoping for the best. Rick then ultimately decides that the situation is hopeless to repair, and uses his portal gun. The scene is now Rick and Morty's garage, with Morty congratulating Rick on saving the world from the love potion. Rick asks Morty for his screwdriver, and gladly begins to finish his invention from earlier. Just as Rick twists the screw the third time, the device violently explodes, blasting Morty into the roof and breaking his arm so sharply the bone pierces through his arm. Rick is pushed back so hard his eyeball becomes loose from his skull and pops out. The Rick and Morty from the previous scene then step out from the portal, and Morty panicks at the incredibly bloody garage with the corpses of him and his grandfather lying limp and burnt on ground; until Rick calms him down. The episode ends with Rick and Morty, burying their dead bodies in the backyard. Morty, with a thousand-yard stare, returns into the house in a daze before sitting on the couch. After the credits roll, a Cronenberg Rick and Cronenberg Morty transport from a reality they call Cronenberg World in which Cronenberg Rick accidentally turned everyone into normal human beings. Credits *Morty *Rick *Jerry *Beth *Summer *Jessica *Brad *Mr. Goldenfold *Gene Vagina Deaths * Many unnamed "Cronenbergs" *Alternate timeline Rick *Alternate timeline Morty Locations *Harry Herpson High School *Smith Residence Trivia *The actual title of this episode is "Rick Potion #9", but due to technical restrictions, we are unable to use the number sign in the title of this page. *This episode marks the first appearance of Brad. *Near the end of the episode, Rick makes a comment about the ability to switch dimensions and how it can't be done every week, maybe 3 to 4 times. This is meta-commentary on lazy writing, which co-creator Dan Harmon has expressed strong opinions on in the past. *Although Morty is normally traumatized by what occurs throughout the adventures he's goes on with Rick, a much more serious tone had been given this time. Although if you include the credits it almost reverses the whole outlook on the episodes ending itself. *From this episode, forth, Rick and Morty are technically the only two characters who appear in the series anymore, with them living the rest of the series in a clone reality. So technically speaking, Beth, Jerry, and Summer are absent in all subsequent episodes, none of the recurring characters such as Jessica and Principal Vagina appear again etc. *This episode would be references to in the later episode, Rixty Minutes, where Morty shows the clone reality's version of Summer the graves where he and Rick buried themselves and reveals to her that he's technically not her real brother. *In the later episode, Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind, when Rick is arrested by the Council of Ricks, they referred to him as Rick of dimension C-137. It's unclear if the dimension in this episode is dimension C-137, AKA Cronenberg world, or if the new dimension they are now living in is C-137. **In that same episode Cronenberg Rick and Cronenberg Morty are also seen making a background cameo, as one of the many pairs of Rick and Morties there are in the universe. Cultural References *The title of this episode is a parody of the movie "Love Potion No. 9" *When Jerry tells Morty the story about how he fell in true love, he "Fell in love with a young woman named 'Your Mom', and that's not an urban diss." This was a reference to what's known as Maternal Insults, a popular way of jokingly insulting people that kids do nowadays, wherein they will respond to questions people ask them by saying "Your Mom!" or randomly add that into their sentences as a way to offend them. *When Rick asks Morty for a DNA sample, Morty unzips his pants and then Rick stops him, telling them that he meant a lock of his hair and then says "This isn't Game of Thrones". This is a joke on a common criticism on the show, saying that there is a lot of unnecessary instances of nudity and sexual content added into the plotline of the show when it really doesn't need to be there. *The namesake of the Cronenberg world refers to the Canadian film maker/screenwriter/actor David Cronenberg who is famous for body horror films. *After Beth shoots up a bunch of Cronenberg monsters, he tells her that he wishes her gun was his penis. Beth tells him that in that case, he can call her Ernest Hemingway. Jerry didn't get the reference, but the joke was that Ernest Hemingway was a guy who fought in a large amount of wars throughout history and was very knowledgeable and experienced with all kinds of firearms and mostly used them in the wars. *The song that ends the episode is "Look On Down from the Bridge" by Mazzy Star. Category:Episodes Category:Season 1 episodes